Solid state lighting, e.g. lighting based on light emitting diodes (LEDs), is increasingly considered as the environmentally responsible replacement of more energy-inefficient traditional alternatives such as fluorescent and incandescent light sources. In addition, solid state lighting has found its way into new application domains, such as liquid crystal display technology, where backlights made from LEDs yield a superior viewing experience compared to more traditional backlighting, as well as in flexible lighting arrangements, where the compact nature of the LEDs is utilized.
One particular drawback of solid state lighting solutions is cost. For instance, because LEDs are fragile, the LEDs are usually mounted on a carrier such as a printed circuit board, which may be diced and packaged into single units. This increases the cost of the lighting arrangement, in particular if a large number of LEDs are required in the arrangement, such as for instance in a backlighting panel.
US 2009/0091932 A1 discloses a lighting arrangement according to the opening paragraph. A flexible wire grid is provided as a support for the LEDs such that large area carriers for the LEDs can be avoided, thus reducing the cost of the arrangement. The protection of the LEDs on this grid against damage however may be improved. Especially the stresses generated during the stretching step of its manufacturing process can damage the interconnects between the LEDs and the wires on which the LEDs are mounted. For this reason, the LEDs are often made more robust, for instance by placing them on a submount that protects the LEDs from these stresses, with the submount being placed on the wires. However, although this improves robustness, it also significantly increases manufacturing cost, which can be prohibitive when producing large size flexible grids (i.e. flexible grids comprising a large number of LEDs).